How to Hire International Employees in Days, Not Months
Noxx Team
Jun 23, 2025
The world has become a small place, particularly when it comes to recruitment. No longer are businesses limited to hiring talent within their borders or even local areas. The internet has opened the doors to a global labor pool, allowing companies to find the best candidates for their roles, regardless of location. Hiring international employees comes with significant advantages. This includes access to a diverse range of skills, experiences, and perspectives that can help drive innovation and creativity within your business. While hiring international employees can create a wealth of opportunities for your business, it also comes with its own set of challenges. To help your business overcome these hurdles, this article will outline how to hire international employees with AI Recruitment Tools.
International recruitment can be a complex and time-consuming process. Noxx’s AI Recruiters can help streamline the process, ensuring you find the best talent for your role quickly, no matter where they are located.
Table of Contents
What are the Trends Driving International Employment?
Hiring globally has been a practice for enterprise-level companies for a very long time. Consider the case of Apple. During and after the recession, Apple focused on sourcing remote talent across countries. The tech giant specifically targeted employees who could work remotely across borders, which helped them find experienced and skilled employees at relatively lower costs. As a result, Apple was able to maintain its market share consistently and even grew in some aspects.
Hiring internationally has become easier, thanks to services like EORs and PEOs. A company no longer needs to reach an enterprise level before it starts expanding globally. With this in place, many businesses today hire globally, launch their international operations, and gain a competitive edge in global expansion.
Trends Driving Global Recruitment
Employers are increasingly looking internationally to hire new talent. But what’s driving this shift? Here are four key trends fueling the rise of global employment.
The Rise of Remote Work
Remote work is becoming the new normal. Since the pandemic, remote work models have surged to unprecedented levels. It’s expected that there will be 36.2 million Americans working remotely by 2025.
As remote work expands, businesses are increasingly turning to international recruitment to find global talent and develop their teams beyond traditional office boundaries. This transformative shift in work dynamics has empowered individuals to work from anywhere, giving rise to the concept of digital nomadism.
Growth in Outsourcing
Outsourcing has also been a significant driving factor in global employment. Businesses spent over $700 billion on outsourcing in 2025 alone. Companies are seeking cost-effective solutions to optimize their operations and access specialized expertise. And outsourcing is one of them.
Global Expansion
The global economy is projected to grow by 2.3% in 2023 and 2.5% in 2024. As companies venture into new markets, the demand for hiring local employees will also increase.
Although companies may consider relocating employees to manage their overseas operations, hiring locally helps them build stronger connections with the local culture and gain a deeper understanding of the target market. Global expansion presents a prime opportunity for businesses to transcend borders and embrace a diverse international workforce.
Skills and Talent Mismatch
Another reason employers are hiring international employees is to fill the talent gap. The talent gap in the job market is widening, with 77% of businesses struggling to find the necessary talent in 2023.
HR managers are looking abroad to find skilled professionals who can fill positions where local talent is limited. As a result, more companies are looking into hiring workers from other countries. Global recruitment enables these companies to access a broader talent pool, helping them stay competitive.
The Benefits of Hiring Internationally
How would you like to tap into a new talent pool? Hiring internationally offers the chance to find skilled professionals in new locations you previously couldn’t access.
You can invigorate your team by hiring global employees who have hard-to-find or highly specialized skills that are in short supply. Even your most senior employees can benefit from skills transfer in these situations.
Enter New Markets
If you’re looking to expand into global markets, hiring internationally can give your brand legitimacy, whether you’re in startup mode or you’re a firmly established company. Employees who are familiar with a local market can guide you through the pitfalls of opening an office by providing the following:
Language skills
Knowledge of local business customs and etiquette
Established professional networks
Local business knowledge and contacts to pave the way for introductions
Insight into employee expectations for pay and benefits
Professional and social support for your staff who relocate to open a new office
Hiring foreign employees gives your company a soft landing when entering new markets and allows you to build trust quickly in new places.
Access a Wider Talent Pool
While your country’s labor force might be significant, it’s still a fraction of the number of people who are looking for work worldwide. For example, countries in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East have experienced very high growth rates for engineers and software developers, as they possess the necessary skills and tools to collaborate with international teams.
Opening your hiring process to a broader group of candidates means that you’ll have a larger group from which to choose, which is particularly important if you’re trying to find someone with a unique set of skills and experience.
Worldwide Coverage
One benefit to hiring internationally is the ability to work across different time zones. Overall productivity increases when your team is distributed around the globe and work is performed 24 hours, 7 days a week. There is even a positive trickle-down effect on mental health, as your employees don’t need to work long or unusual hours to meet various needs.
According to a 2022 survey, 41% of workers believe flexible work hours are the most desirable mental health support an employer can offer. Going global also enables your company to leverage the benefits of asynchronous working. When you free productivity from hourly constraints, you will be shocked at just how much more productive your team members (and, as a result, your company) can be.
Build Brand Awareness Globally
Your international employees can help you gain a better understanding of different markets and give you insight into how your business is perceived in those places. You can also better tailor your product or service to fit various cultures around the world.
Increased Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
It cannot be overstated how much genuine value a business derives from having a diverse group of skills, opinions, and experiences. Repeated research demonstrates that diversity has a positive impact in the workplace. When you hire an international workforce, your whole team gets a boost from DEI, including:
Improved employee performance
Increased productivity
More creativity and innovation
Reduced turnover of employees and contractors
Don’t be afraid to leap with your first international hire. If you are not sure whether you’re ready to hire full-time help, you can always get started with international contractors. As long as you stay compliant in your international hiring practices, it’s all upside for the business and your team. Hiring internationally could be the secret sauce to gaining a competitive advantage and solidifying your diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
Reduce Costs
In some cases, it may be more cost-effective to hire remote workers from other countries than it would be to send your employees abroad for work. For example, the average 3-year expatriate assignment costs $1 million. Hiring international employees allows you to expand your team without having to go through the hassle and expense of relocating them.
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• Candidate Screening
• Hiring Strategy for Startups
• AI Recruitment Tools
How to Hire International Employees in 5 Steps
1. Define Where Your International Talent Will Work From
Before starting, you need to make a strategic decision:
Will your foreign employees work from where they are, remotely, or will you ask them to relocate to a different country, like where your headquarters are?
This step comes first for a reason. When you narrow down the job’s location, you narrow down your job pool, age group, and thus the level of experience you’re looking for. You’re also adding a selling point to your employer’s brand if you end up offering relocation packages. So when it comes to how to hire foreign workers, decide their target location before even connecting with anyone, even before deciding on which pool you’ll dive into.
2. Decide Where You’ll Run Your Job Ads
If you want to hire internationally, you need to post your job ads in places where international workers will notice them. You should focus on using specialised job boards. Some of them may be for remote opportunities, while others may be for relocation packages.
Job platforms like Relocate.me connect tech professionals with companies that offer relocation assistance and are seeking to hire internationally. Other sites provide less curated experiences but can help you get employees who are not from a niche, such as customer service reps.
3. Set Up an Onboarding Process
Before you hire, but after you decide on where to post your job ads, understand how you’ll onboard your first international employee. If this looks like jumping the gun, it’s not. An employee will sign the contract only if they’re sure your process for hiring them is rock-solid.
If you have a well-thought-out onboarding process, the employee will be compelled to sign your offer over a competitor’s. To ease this up, you could consider using an AI recruiter with features to categorise workers, such as Noxx. Check what the onboarding process for an employee looks like and, when the time comes, know the specifics so you can describe it to your candidate in an interview.
Navigating Contract Types for Foreign Workers
When it comes to employee onboarding, you should define a standard contract and check if you want your foreign workers to work as independent contractors or as full-time employees. It’ll depend on the legal framework you’re subject to. In highly regulated job markets like the US, having employees as independent contractors can expedite the process. Your ATS and international payroll solution will cover these bits for you.
4. Figure Out Your International Payroll
Now that you know where you’ll seek out your foreign workers and how you’ll get them on board when the time for hiring comes, you need to know how you’ll pay your new employees. The easiest and most reliable option is using a global payroll platform because they cover the legal nooks and crannies (i.e., they know how to request a tax ID in your employee’s country) for you.
Rippling or Remote all sorts of this out. And if your candidate has been doing some research, she’ll be relieved to realise you’re using one of those tools, because it makes invoicing, assuming she’ll be working as an independent contractor, simpler for her.
5. Go Out and Hire
Some of these steps could look too hurried on. Why not figure out international payroll after getting a close hire? It’s a valid approach, for sure, but we strongly suggest following these steps in order because they’ll narrow down your pool. Maybe you realise that you can’t pay in this or that currency because your balance sheets will look skewed, and you already promised a certain salary to a new hire.
That’s a wrongheaded direction for your employer experience. It's best to follow steps 1-4 before getting to the gist of it: Go out and hire. Follow your usual HR process to try to reach out to vetted candidates, and when you find a suitable foreign worker, explain to them that you have everything in place to let them work for you.
Noxx: AI-Powered Recruitment for Fast, Affordable Hiring
Hiring the right talent shouldn't take months or cost a fortune. Noxx's AI recruiter finds you the top 10 candidates in just 7 days by screening over 1,000 applicants automatically. You only pay $300 if you hire someone; there are no upfront fees or expensive recruiter commissions.
The platform shows you salary expectations upfront and helps you find quality engineers, marketers, and salespeople at up to 70% less than US rates. Upload your job description and let the AI handle the heavy lifting while you focus on picking the best fit for your team.
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• AI Sourcing
• AI-Powered Recruitment
• Start Up Recruitment Agency
7 Best Practices to Hire International Employees
1. Fine-Tune Your Job Descriptions: Optimize For Global Appeal
When hiring international employees, your first step is to create a precise and engaging job description that attracts qualified candidates. Write the job posting in English and the language of the target country.
The posting should be captivating and concise, as applicants often skim descriptions to find roles that suit their skills. The expectations of the role should be clear as well. Human resources should select the most suitable channels and websites to distribute the job announcement.
2. Use the Right Channels: Find the Best Job Boards for Your Target Market
A job board or career site is a platform where job seekers can search for job openings by location, industry, or job role. Find out what the most popular job board is in your new target market. If you’re looking to hire a dedicated developer or other specialized talent, consider platforms that cater specifically to remote tech professionals, ensuring access to a highly skilled and vetted talent pool.
Technology companies seeking specialized talent often partner with a Ruby on Rails company to identify developers with specific framework expertise that matches their technical requirements. To help you determine this, leverage your internal network that may have the language skills, experience, or knowledge about the local talent landscape.
3. Implement Flexible Interviewing Options: Break Down Distance Barriers
The interview is one of the most critical parts of the recruitment process. During the interview, it provides an opportunity for both the employer and employee to present themselves and determine whether their expectations can be met through an employment agreement. When interviewing candidates internationally, it is essential to consider time zones, distance, and the availability of technology.
Your recruitment process should allow for multiple options for conducting interviews. This could include covering the cost of the candidate's travel to the head office for their job interview or utilizing a video interview tool to conduct the interview virtually. Another option is to outsource the recruitment process, including the interview, to a third-party recruitment agency and be free from the hiring process.
4. Use Your Existing Network: Find Trusted Candidates Abroad
When you’re staffing a new country, it can take some time to build trust and credibility in the job market. Just like you can use your internal network to help you determine the proper sourcing channels, you can leverage their network to help you hire staff by hiring new employees through referrals. One of the most effective recruitment techniques has always been an employee referral.
Why not take advantage of this on an international scale to hire foreign workers, like Bulgarian developers?
Ask your existing employees who may have connections abroad to recommend the company to their networks. Having already established a relationship with the team, it will make integration with the company easier and foster loyalty to the employer. Don’t stop at your employee base. Include your partners, local business contacts, or even suppliers in your recruitment and hiring efforts.
5. Be Aware Of Employment Laws: Avoid Legal Risks Of International Recruitment
This can be one of the most daunting parts of international hiring as a recruiter. Employment laws in the US can be considerably different than those overseas. If you are not fully aware of the legislation in the country where the new employees will be working, you can find your business at legal risk down the line.
Take the time to fully understand the laws that will apply to your foreign employees. When doing so, consider topics such as taxes, paid leave, probationary periods, and background checks. It’s also essential to understand the difference between types of employment contracts or classifications, as they may also be different than what they are in your home company. You can hire legal counsel to help you put compliant procedures, policies, and employment contracts in place to ensure that you avoid legal risk for hiring in unknown territory.
6. Build Your Employer Brand: Create A Positive Company Reputation Abroad
Most likely, your company already has an employer brand in your home country. If you are interested in hiring international employees, it’s time to expand this brand to your new market. For the candidate abroad to want to join the company, you must work to improve the company’s employer brand. By carefully managing the employer brand, which represents the company's image in the public eye, you ensure that those searching for your company for the first time are left with a positive impression.
To achieve this, the leadership team works to communicate the corporate vision, the work environment, the company's values, and the benefits of working for the company. This is an opportunity for the employer to invite those who have worked or are still employed at the company to share their experiences. This can have an impact on international recruitment by highlighting the reasons why someone unfamiliar with your company should consider joining it.
7. Outsource To A Specialized Recruitment Agency: Leverage Industry Knowledge For International Hiring Success
Some recruitment firms specialize in international recruitment consulting. They may have connections in the geographical areas where the company wishes to develop its activity. At the same time, the recruitment firm is familiar with the country's regulations and culture. To take it a step further, there may even be agencies specialized in your specific industry or area. For example, suppose your business requires expertise in New York.
NYC-based recruitment firms can provide tailored solutions, valuable insights into the local talent market, and help you negotiate competitive local salaries and benefits based on regional standards. The specialized recruitment firm is therefore able to deliver coaching and sound advice, as well as identify the type of profile that is best suited for your business.
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• How Much Do Recruitment Agencies Charge
• International Recruiting Firms
• Top Recruiting Platforms
Upload a Job and Get 10 Candidates within 7 Days with Noxx (No Risk, No Upfront Fees)
Finding the right talent, no matter where they are located, can help your business grow quickly and even save money. Hiring international employees can give your company access to a larger talent pool, helping you find the best people for the job.
In some cases, it can even help you save money. For example, let's say you are looking for a software developer in the U.S. The average salary for a mid-level developer in the U.S. is around $100,000 a year.
Unlocking Value: The Benefits of Hiring Brazilian Software Developers
If you look at the salary for a mid-level software developer in Brazil, it’s around $25,000 a year. While there may be some differences in skill level and the way each country approaches software development, there’s a good chance you’ll find a qualified candidate in Brazil who can do the job you need without a significant difference in performance.
Not only will hiring someone from Brazil help you save money, but it will also allow you to meet your project deadlines faster by getting the right talent onboard as quickly as possible.
Streamline Your Recruitment Process
Hiring international employees doesn’t have to be complicated. Using innovative recruitment strategies can help you find qualified candidates quickly. For example, using AI-powered recruitment software can help you automate the process and narrow down your pool of candidates quickly.
Noxx's AI recruiter finds you the top 10 candidates in just 7 days by screening over 1,000 applicants automatically. You only pay $300 if you hire someone; there are no upfront fees or expensive recruiter commissions. The platform displays salary expectations upfront and helps you find high-quality engineers, marketers, and salespeople at up to 70% less than US rates.
Upload your job description and let the AI recruiter handle the heavy lifting while you focus on picking the best fit for your team!